38 
TENTH REPORT. 
8. Heliopsis laevis Dunal. Ox-eye. 
A single plant with all of the leaves in whorls of three. 
9. Helianthus spp. Sunflowers. 
At least two different plants of this genus have been seen with all of the 
leaves in whorls of three. 
A very different variation was called to my attention in the spring of 1907 
by Miss Frances Stearns, of Adrian, who sent a series of flowers of Ranun- 
culus delphinifolius Torrey, the Yellow Water Crowfoot, in which the petals 
were all trifid, the three lobes being of about equal size, and the lobation 
extending in most of the examples quite to the gland situated at the base 
of the petal; some of the flowers, as is frequently the case in this species, 
showed a tendency towards doubling, more than five petals occurring, but 
the extra petals were as deeply lobed as the others. Some of the plants 
were kindly furnished by Miss Stearns but the later flowers developing from 
these did not have lobed petals, although a few of them showed notches 
along the margins. It was reported by the collector of the specimens that 
all of the plants, over a considerable area of swamp in which it occurred, 
had the same peculiarity. This variation in the flowers of a species of Ranun- 
culus is the more interesting because no record of similar parting of the 
petals in any plant of the family seems to have been made; no species of 
Ranunculus or any of the related genera has any but entire petals, the vari- 
ous parts of the flowers were normal, and the color of the petals had no sug- 
gestion of green in it, thus the variation does not seem to be a case of phyllody, 
although from analogy to the vegetative leaves, the lobing would suggest 
that this might be so. Plants propagated from those received, have been 
kept over winter and it is hoped they may bloom in due season, and that 
seed may be obtained from them in order to determine whether this is a 
mutation or simply a sport. 
Ann Arbor, Mich. 
